Although the news is good for ISEE-3 lovers, it’s still uncertain whether the ISEE-3 reboot project will be able to fire its engines after such a long time out of contact. If the engines can’t be fired, the satellite will swing out of reach, perhaps for two centuries or more.

After 30 years of being blasted by solar radiation, the thing still works!

I'm surprised the computers onboard are still running without memory corruption or physical damage to the electronics. The Voyager probes have lasted longer but they're coasting into pretty much empty space, whereas ISEE has to deal with a more turbulent environment.

The bureaucrats are killing NASA. Enthusiasts are keeping the dream going.

I so completely fail to under stand NASA's budget woes. It's a total of $20 billion a year. It's a rounding error as it is in the federal budget.

It's pathetic.

It's patheticly sad that the US can't boost a human to orbit.

US is only willing to spend untold billions on military-related projects. What NASA does doesn't currently contribute to America's military strength, and so the budget is being cut.Even though NASA was always non-military entity, it used to have important military meaning during the cold war. Most of the great achievements of NASA were done in the spirit of "let's do it before Russians do" to project America's power and potential through events like the moon landing. Aside from the military aspect of this, there was also the all-important dick waving at Russians, which gradually waned as years passed. I think the only way NASA budget can increase is if the Russians (or Chinese?) start posing a thread to the US again. Which is not something we should hope for.

After 30 years of being blasted by solar radiation, the thing still works!

I'm surprised the computers onboard are still running without memory corruption or physical damage to the electronics. The Voyager probes have lasted longer but they're coasting into pretty much empty space, whereas ISEE has to deal with a more turbulent environment.

Does this mean I can no longer claim "solar flare" when I get a bug report that I can't reproduce?

The bureaucrats are killing NASA. Enthusiasts are keeping the dream going.

I so completely fail to under stand NASA's budget woes. It's a total of $20 billion a year. It's a rounding error as it is in the federal budget.

It's pathetic.

It's patheticly sad that the US can't boost a human to orbit.

US is only willing to spend untold billions on military-related projects. What NASA does doesn't currently contribute to America's military strength, and so the budget is being cut.Even though NASA was always non-military entity, it used to have important military meaning during the cold war. Most of the great achievements of NASA were done in the spirit of "let's do it before Russians do" to project America's power and potential through events like the moon landing. Aside from the military aspect of this, there was also the all-important dick waving at Russians, which gradually waned as years passed. I think the only way NASA budget can increase is if the Russians (or Chinese?) start posing a thread to the US again. Which is not something we should hope for.

I agree we shouldn't hope for it, but it's happened. Russia is Ba-ack! with Syria and Ukraine and China unleashed that kill satalite a few years ago in orbit (creaing debris to kill another satelite, and so did we). With China stealing all sorts of military tech and launching their own space program and Russia cutting out of the ISS I think it's only a matter of time.

I am hopefull though that these new entities, like Skycorp, like Space-X, might lead the way into some sort of sustained push into outer space and maybe some kind of extra-terrestrial colony or base far into the future. I'm really impressed with what they managed to do.

The bureaucrats are killing NASA. Enthusiasts are keeping the dream going.

I so completely fail to under stand NASA's budget woes. It's a total of $20 billion a year. It's a rounding error as it is in the federal budget.

It's pathetic.

It's patheticly sad that the US can't boost a human to orbit.

US is only willing to spend untold billions on military-related projects. What NASA does doesn't currently contribute to America's military strength, and so the budget is being cut.Even though NASA was always non-military entity, it used to have important military meaning during the cold war. Most of the great achievements of NASA were done in the spirit of "let's do it before Russians do" to project America's power and potential through events like the moon landing. Aside from the military aspect of this, there was also the all-important dick waving at Russians, which gradually waned as years passed. I think the only way NASA budget can increase is if the Russians (or Chinese?) start posing a thread to the US again. Which is not something we should hope for.

There's some truth to that, but I only get to vote in the US's elections. Given the choice, I'll vote for whoever runs on a platform of adding a few zeros to NASA's budget.

The bureaucrats are killing NASA. Enthusiasts are keeping the dream going.

I so completely fail to under stand NASA's budget woes. It's a total of $20 billion a year. It's a rounding error as it is in the federal budget.

It's pathetic.

It's patheticly sad that the US can't boost a human to orbit.

I've had a beef with NASA priorities for years now. They should have been focusing on two things: space based telescopes and cheap, reusable space travel. Instead they keep talking about a man on Mars and blew trillions on countless shuttle launches with lackluster experiments. They are partly to blame for the mess they're in.

After 30 years of being blasted by solar radiation, the thing still works!

I'm surprised the computers onboard are still running without memory corruption or physical damage to the electronics. The Voyager probes have lasted longer but they're coasting into pretty much empty space, whereas ISEE has to deal with a more turbulent environment.

The bureaucrats are killing NASA. Enthusiasts are keeping the dream going.

I so completely fail to under stand NASA's budget woes. It's a total of $20 billion a year. It's a rounding error as it is in the federal budget.

It's pathetic.

It's patheticly sad that the US can't boost a human to orbit.

I've had a beef with NASA priorities for years now. They should have been focusing on two things: space based telescopes and cheap, reusable space travel. Instead they keep talking about a man on Mars and blew trillions on countless shuttle launches with lackluster experiments. They are partly to blame for the mess they're in.

Your beef should be with the politicians who keep interfering with NASA and give it its missions and control it by its funding or lack of

After 30 years of being blasted by solar radiation, the thing still works!

I'm surprised the computers onboard are still running without memory corruption or physical damage to the electronics. The Voyager probes have lasted longer but they're coasting into pretty much empty space, whereas ISEE has to deal with a more turbulent environment.

After 30 years of being blasted by solar radiation, the thing still works!

I'm surprised the computers onboard are still running without memory corruption or physical damage to the electronics. The Voyager probes have lasted longer but they're coasting into pretty much empty space, whereas ISEE has to deal with a more turbulent environment.

Transistors were bigger then, and could survive more radiation.

And they knew it was going into space, and presumably planned for some radiation exposure.

After 30 years of being blasted by solar radiation, the thing still works!

I'm surprised the computers onboard are still running without memory corruption or physical damage to the electronics. The Voyager probes have lasted longer but they're coasting into pretty much empty space, whereas ISEE has to deal with a more turbulent environment.

That's kinda confusing because a microcontroller is just a system-on-a-chip designed for embedded applications with a microprocessor, ROM, RAM, I/O channels, etc. As in, a computer.

I listened to the video and it sounded like the distinction they were making is that there isn't a centralized OS that manages the whole machine and runs batches of commands, like how modern rovers/probes do. So their commands will be sent directly to the subsystem to be executed. But still, those commands are going to be received by the probe's antenna, which will have a microcontroller to do the signal processing and decode the signal, and then the commands to the appropriate subsystem which probably also has a microcontroller to handle its work... Sounds like a computer to me, albeit a relatively simple one.

Edit: Buddy P's comment on Page 2 explains how it is not a microcontroller/computer but hard-wired logic.

There really is no general purpose computer on board, just a bunch of instruments hooked up to a data multiplexer and transmitter. It seems data is streamed continuously. It's primitive compared to the Voyager probes from the same era but it's probably lots cheaper too.

I wonder how they control the probe without a computer. Some microcontroller hooked up to the transceiver that listens for particular command patterns?

Reading this reminded of that story about whale oil and lamps or something, and made me realize the world is really missing a good, modern religion based on sci-fi shit. (scientology doesn't count, it's a cult.)

The bureaucrats are killing NASA. Enthusiasts are keeping the dream going.

Its not the "bureaucrats ". They allowed this transfer of control to happen because their hands were tied financially.

It's Congress which keeps slashing its budget.

But isn't NASA also responsible for wasting its budget on manned travel to mars and back to the moon type projects?

Not really, presidents basically have the power to decide where NASA spends its budget, so long as Congress approves the funding. It's not a decision that gets made by NASA. For instance, Bush 2 was the one who decided to shift priorities to Mars.

The bureaucrats are killing NASA. Enthusiasts are keeping the dream going.

Its not the "bureaucrats ". They allowed this transfer of control to happen because their hands were tied financially.

It's Congress which keeps slashing its budget.

But isn't NASA also responsible for wasting its budget on manned travel to mars and back to the moon type projects?

Not really, presidents basically have the power to decide where NASA spends its budget, so long as Congress approves the funding. It's not a decision that gets made by NASA. For instance, Bush 2 was the one who decided to shift priorities to Mars.

NASA heavily influences the government wrt what missions it can do and what it wants to do. It's not as if Bush dreamed this up all by himself without consulting. The first Rover was in development under Clinton. For years we've heard "water on Mars therefore life" from NASA press ops.

Glad to see that my neighbors down at the Arecibo Observatory are doing really cool things like this. (Just go easy on the food, Puerto Rico's local cuisine is delicious but can be really harsh on the good old arteries!)